Life is Beautiful

In the week leading up to the Oscars there was a lot of talk about movies and dramatic performances. Unfortunately, my partner Christine and I were unable to turn in any kind of Titanic performance in two outings at our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center. We couldn’t crack 50% either time we … [Read more...]

Virus hits Bridge, too

The coronavirus pandemic has altered life as we know it for the foreseeable future and the bridge world is no exception. The biggest blow to the top of the game is the cancelation of the Spring Nationals, the North American Bridge Championships (NABC) later this week in Columbus, OH, that will … [Read more...]

Bridge According to the Stars

The bridge players’ horoscope for the month of September, 2019: Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) – This is your lucky month! Your astrological sign is star-crossed and you’ll consistently get below-average hands in point count. So when you complain about never getting any cards, at least this time it’ll … [Read more...]

The Know-It-Alls

One of the surprises I got when I started directing duplicate games was how little some of the better players actually know about the rules and the laws of bridge – or maybe they do know the rules, but they try to bend them to their favor, intimidating everyone with their reputation as good players, … [Read more...]

Of Slams and Captains

In all the time we’ve been playing bridge, my partner Christine and I can’t recall ever having had a stretch of games like this. At a club pairs game on Tuesday of this past week, we bid and made no fewer than five Slams on pre-dealt boards, more than anyone else in the field across three sections – … [Read more...]

The 70% Club

My partner Christine and I had the second 70-plus percent game of our bridge careers (8-30-2018) and we’re still sort of scratching our heads as to what lifted us to such exalted status. We got a special mention at our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Club, and we’ll be listed in next month’s … [Read more...]

2-Day Monkey Business

Our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center, this past weekend experimented with a two-day Sectional tournament, instead of the usual three-day format. According to the club’s managers, they made just as much money off a two-day Sectional on Saturday and Sunday only as they used to earn off a … [Read more...]

Lighten Up!!!

My partner Christine and I have been browsing through a terrific bridge book, “50 Winning Duplicate Tips,” by Australian expert Ron Klinger. The nice thing about his “tips” is that they don’t require you to adapt a whole new bidding system – for the most part you can just incorporate them into … [Read more...]

Breaking out of a Slump

Like any competitive endeavor, bridge is in large measure a mental game – the attitude that you bring to the table will greatly influence your results. If you let yourself be intimidated by the better players, you will get bad boards against them. But by the same token, if you underestimate … [Read more...]

Sam the Slammer

What does it really take to make a Slam? Some optimists say you should start thinking Slam once you’ve determined that between you and your partner you have a minimum of 29 high-card points. Others say you need at least 30 or even more. As with everything else in bridge, there’s probably no … [Read more...]